As adults – hurried, stressed-out, not wanting to get in the middle of a messy situation – we far too often don’t listen to our inner voices. Those voices can be life-saving at times, as one teenage boy in Dorchester, an area of Boston, Massachusetts, demonstrated oh-so-well recently.

As told to an area TV news team, 17-year-old Cameron Cook was at the South Bay Target store on a Saturday, when he noticed a man grabbing himself, and he immediately told his mother that something wasn’t right about the guy. As Cook continued to watch the man, he realized he was following a young girl. By now, even the mother realized something was amiss.

“I was close enough that I could smell the liquor coming from his mouth,” said Heather Cook about the man in question. “It was horrible,” she added.

Things went from bad to worse when Cameron saw the man push himself against the young girl. The teenager knew he could no longer be a bystander, and made his presence known to the creepy man.

“He was big, and Cameron had no fear at all,” his amazed said in retelling the incident to the news.
Without hesitation, the teenager told the man, who his mother described as being much bigger than her son, to leave the store, and amazingly, the man complied, although not without complaining and saying he “wasn’t a pervert” first. The Target store later brought in law enforcement and handed over the store’s security footage.
“I’m very proud of him, but it’s totally within his character,” said proud mama Heather Cook.

“I’m just glad I was there to protect her, cause you never know what could have gone on,” said Cameron.
As for the little girl’s mother, she had apparently gone to the back of the store to go to the bathroom and was obviously incredibly grateful for Cameron’s intervention. Needless to say, authorities tell parents never to leave children unsupervised and to take them with them to the restroom if need be.

If not for Cameron Cook, this story could have had a very different – and possibly sinister – ending.